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LETTER: Modern players far superior to old-timers

MyCentralJersey
12:04 a.m. EDT July 8, 2014

--Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox outfielder, currently topping the major leagues at bat with a .353 average after today's Boston Red Sox - New York Yankees game in Boston on August 18, 1942, talks over records with Joe DiMaggio, the Yanks' heavy-hitting center fielder whose average is now at .311. (AP Photo/Abe Fox)(Photo: Digital Collections/IPTC)

Several years after he retired, Ted Williams (considered by many to be the greatest hitter in baseball history) was asked by a reporter if he could have hit a slider. Williams paused (uncharacteristically) before answering: “Yes, I would have adapted and learned to hit that pitch.”

The reason for his tentative response was that Williams never saw a slider during his career. Nor did he see a relief pitcher (at least one as good as, if not better than a starter). The same is true for Joe DiMaggio, Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb.

For almost the entire history of baseball it has been asserted and assumed that players were better in the distant past. This is not even remotely true.

Even a cursory viewing of old newsreel footage reveals the glaring gulf in talent, effort and accomplishment between pre-1960 players and their modern counterparts. You never see anyone lay out; you never see someone climb a wall (with the notable exception of Pete Reiser); and they half-heartedly ran the bases.

Simply put, it was not the same game. Cy Young often pitched complete games in both ends of a double-header. Prior to 1947, the absence of African-Americans and Latinos meant that players did not face the best competition. Parenthetically, Williams was one of the very few players to advocate for integrating major league baseball; he was certainly the most high-profile player to do so.

And, yes, I do believe that Teddy Ballgame would have found a way to hit the “slide piece.”